Recent Champaign Central graduate Brian Becker, holding certificate, poses for a photo with members of Drew Adams’ family and members of the Drew Adams Memorial Scholarship selection committee on May 18 at Tommy Stewart Field in Champaign. Becker is the first recipient of the scholarship, created in honor of 2020 Central graduate Drew Adams after his death last May in a boating accident. From left are Sophia Adams, Harold Adams, Chase Vickers, Nik Johnson, Connor Milton, Becker, Prudence Adams, Umar Sallah, Ruby Adams and Brett Barcus.
CHAMPAIGN — Sunday marks the one-year anniversary of Drew Adams’ death in a Wisconsin boating accident.
The Champaign community was rocked by the sudden passing of an 18-year-old who had just graduated from Central High School days prior.
In the nearly 365 days since, numerous gestures have happened to recognize Adams’ life and extend his legacy.
Among them: the creation of the Drew Adams Memorial Scholarship and the planting of a tree at Spalding Park, home of the Maroons baseball team for which Adams once played.
Brian Becker became the scholarship’s first-ever recipient on May 18, and the tree officially was recognized Thursday night prior to a Central-Centennial baseball game.
“The support from the community has just been amazing,” said Nik Johnson, a 2020 Central graduate who was a close friend of Adams and one of six individuals on the scholarship’s selection committee. “The constant support has been truly special.”
The plaque at the base of the tree that was planted in honor of Drew Adams at Spalding Park in Champaign on Thursday, May 27, 2021.
Becker graduated from Central earlier this week, seven days after being awarded the new scholarship by Johnson and fellow 2020 Central alumnus Connor Milton.
“I was ecstatic,” Becker said of receiving the scholarship. “I was smiling ear to ear to be the first person to help carry on his legacy and spread his name and who he was.”
Becker played baseball and football with Adams, dating as far back as T-ball at age 5 or 6.
“Just being surrounded by his closest friends and them saying, ‘Drew loved hanging out with you and he always enjoyed you and you were one of us,’ it really sent me back,” Becker said. “I didn’t know how much I meant to them.”
The scholarship is worth $3,000, which Becker described as a testament to how many people love and are affected by Adams. Harold Adams, Drew’s father, said the current balance of the scholarship fund is $40,000.
But Becker, who will attend the University of Illinois this fall with the hope of getting into supply chain management and logistics, said applying for the scholarship was never about money.
“Honestly, even if it was a piece of paper that just said I was the first recipient and I didn’t get a dime, I would be just as happy,” Becker said. “I wanted to be the first person to carry on Drew’s name. The money had zero to do with it.”
“After he was awarded, he texted us, ‘This is not about the money. I appreciate the honor,’” Johnson added. “He’s a great kid. I think he was the most deserving.”
Harold Adams talks about his son, Drew, before Thursday night’s baseball game between Champaign Central and Centennial at Spalding Park in Champaign. Sunday will mark the one-year anniversary of Drew Adams’ death. ‘The support from the community has just been amazing,’ said Nik Johnson, who was a close friend of Adams.
Picking the recipient
Johnson, Milton and fellow selection committee members Caleb Pyrz, Umar Sallah, Chase Vickers and Brett Barcus were looking for “someone who represented who Drew was” with the inaugural scholarship winner, according to Johnson.
“So that’s an athlete, a good student, a kid who cares about his friends, about his family, who is nice to everybody no matter who they are,” Johnson said. “We wanted to do something with more personable qualities.”
Johnson made sure to remind that Pyrz was at the forefront of the scholarship concept and said the committee received close to 10 applications.
“We wanted to make sure we didn’t pick someone just because … we were better friends with them,” Johnson said. “(All the applicants) knew Drew in the past. It allowed us to kind of look beyond the application and really know who deserved it and who it’d mean the most to and who’d value it, and that was Brian.”
Johnson noted that Becker has voluntarily mowed the Adams family yard since Drew’s passing and that Becker organized a ceremony in which Adams’ football jersey was retired prior to a Central-Centennial football game on April 3.
“He’s been there every step of the way,” Johnson said.
Drew Adams completes a weightlifting exercise while being rooted on by Brian Becker, right of Adams, during a 2019 Champaign Central football preseason workout on Tommy Stewart Field in Champaign. Adams and Becker were teammates in both football and baseball for several years.
Leaving a mark
Becker didn’t mention either of these acts when speaking to The News-Gazette. Instead, he focused on the good times he spent with Adams.
The families live two streets apart in Champaign. Adams and Becker won a Twin City Tournament championship in youth baseball as members of the Wampler team. During middle school, the two actually were rivals when Adams attended Franklin Academy and Becker went to Edison.
The duo engaged in typical childhood activities, such as riding bikes, playing catch and fishing. When they became older, Adams would drive Becker to Central for 5 a.m. athletic practices.
“Even the small things I didn’t think were that important I looked back on, and it made me smile,” Becker said. “I wouldn’t trade them for anything.”
Becker was working at Savoy’s University of Illinois Golf Course on the day Adams’ death became public knowledge.
“I was speechless,” Becker said. “There’s carts all backed up, and I couldn’t snap out of it. I couldn’t get carts going, so I had to go away and process things. I don’t think I ever came back that week.”
Becker said he isn’t surprised with how the community continues to pay tribute to Adams through monetary donations and other forms of support.
“I had no idea this many people were impacted by Drew, but that’s who he was,” Becker said. “You remember Drew, and you wanted to be around him more.”
Adams’ scholarship was the only one for which Becker applied. It was presented second at a May 18 ceremony that recognized Class of 2021 graduates.
Johnson and Milton were flanked by the Adams family, Sallah, Vickers and Barcus. Pyrz was unable to attend because of an internship commitment.
“I don’t know if surreal is the right word, but I was sitting in their seats 12 months ago,” Johnson said of looking out at those soon-to-be Central grads. “The fact that I was up there presenting a scholarship and I had the honor to give it to Brian, who just represents our friend extremely well and how he lived his life, it was just an incredible honor to be able to do that.”
People stand near the tree that was planted in the memory of Drew Adams at Spalding Park in Champaign on Thursday. Adams, a former Champaign Central athlete, died last May in a boating accident in Wisconsin.
Tree of hope
Harold Adams spoke to Thursday’s gathering at Spalding Park about the quickly-growing tree planted in his son’s honor near the facility’s concession stand.
Adams credited Tim and Molly McMahon, the former of whom is a Champaign Park District commissioner, for coming up with the idea of donating and dedicating a tree in Drew Adams’ name.
A plaque also sits at the tree’s base and reads, “We remember. DREW ADAMS #1. September 7, 2001 — May 30, 2020. Beloved Son, Brother and Friend. ‘For the love of the game.’” Adams wore No. 1 when he played baseball and football for the Maroons.
The tree actually was planted last fall, but the Adams family wanted to wait until a better time — considering the COVID-19 pandemic — to hold an associated ceremony.
“Drew played a lot of baseball here,” Harold Adams said to the crowd, his voice breaking. “This being park district property, we thought this would be a perfect location for the tree, to forever think of Drew and remember Drew with something.”
Harold Adams also credited members of the Muskie River father/son trip, of which he and Drew were participants, for donating to help the tree be planted. Some of the people who go on that trip stood behind Harold and wife Prudence on Thursday evening while Harold spoke.
“Can’t think of a better way, really, to remember Drew than to have a tree. Something that’s living, something that we can all see and remember him by,” Harold Adams said. “And I honestly can’t think of a better time to do (a ceremony) than on a Central-Centennial night with all the Champaign people who would’ve known Drew and who are family.”
from WordPress https://ift.tt/2SJBrww
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment